After months to reach out, the 750 employees of the Gifi headquarters in Villeneuve-sur-Lot will be able to blow. Through a lapidary press release – barely 10 lines -, the company’s management announced this Wednesday, July 23, “to interrupt the implementation of the current PSE. “A decision taken” in agreement with the CFDT “. The majority union, the day before, said he had refused to sign a memorandum of understanding presented on Monday by management. Negotiations had to, anywhere, ended on Friday July 25, when the document was to be given to the Labor Department.
The news took it short and surprised a lot of people in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. And interpret it is not easy. “The target organization, as stopped last April by old governance, did not make it possible to operate the strategic reversal necessary for the company,” said the press release.
The future will say it
Do the results of recent months allow us to do without such an economy measure? Or that initially planned, is the deletion of 186 posts brought back “to date to 166” sufficient? The future will say. The abolition of 116 employees, as part of a separate procedure including the closure of 11 stores in France, is ratified.
Au 1is September, Christophe Mistou, current managing director of the Mr. DIY brand, will take office again president of the Management Board. “This decision will allow him to analyze the situation and build a target organization faithful to his vision,” said the press release. And to complete: “If it turns out that adjustments are essential, negotiations will open, in terms of a new social dialogue established. The hypothesis of a new PSE is neither advanced nor dismissed.
An impression of chaos
In the short term therefore, the employees of the headquarters blow. At least a part. “There are quite a few who wanted to go within the framework of this PSE, for an early retirement or to carry out a personal project,” says a trade unionist. It is 70 % relieved and 30 % disappointed. The current strategic plan over three years, open at the end of the company’s conciliation period with its creditors, with the aim of making Gifi again competitive, has not reassured everyone. Many departures have already occurred and “the cancellation of the PSE project will undoubtedly lead to the signing of numerous conventional ruptures”, presumes the union representative.
This surprise announcement strengthens the impression of chaos surrounding this transition period. It follows up on the precipitous departure of Philippe Brochard, operational director of transition, only one month after taking office, at the dismissal procedure which aims for the former HRD of Gifi, Thierry Boukhari, who led negotiations with the unions … Philippe Ginestet for something? As president of the GPG holding company, the founder had to affix his signature to the memorandum of understanding. A PSE he said he was regretting: “I would not have chosen this solution, but I had to validate it during the supervisory board,” he said.
